Pinque anything but angry

“When you tackle Jonathan, you better wrap up or
he’ll break it,” said Frye, who has led the Colonels to
a spotless 4-0 record this season as they enter this
Saturday’s important Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
matchup against unbeaten Birmingham-Southern (5-0).

But according to Pinque, who has now rushed for 2,298 rushing
yards and 34 touchdowns in his career, it’s all an
illusion.

“I’ve been told that my whole life,” said
Pinque, a dual threat who has also added 84 receptions for 840
yards and four touchdowns during his time at the Danville, Ky.,
school. “I don’t really run angry. I hold my breath
when I run.

“It may look like I am mad but I just try to hit the hole,
make a cut and make somebody miss. I know that I am strong and that
if I can break that one extra tackle, that’s where you get
most of your big runs. Somebody told me a long time ago —
never let one person bring you down. I try to live by
that.”

But as you learn more about the life of the 22-year-old, it
appears that he lives his life off the field in the completely
opposite way — lifting others up.

In high school at East Limestone in Alabama, Pinque befriended
8-year-old Brenan Ashmore, a sufferer of hydrocephalus and
sometimes confined to a wheelchair. (Hydrocephalus is a condition
where fluid builds in the head and spinal cord.) Following a
touchdown, Pinque leaped into the stands to give Brenan the
football. At Christmas, he gifted his game jersey to Brenan.

He now serves as a mentor in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters
program.

Or how about the time, as a sophomore in high school when he
jumped into a neighbor’s pond to rescue two friends, Jacob
Green and Ricardo Jaramillo, whose car was submerged following an
accident. Pinque used one of his barbell bars to smash the sunroof
and drag the unconscious teens from the vehicle. For that act,
Pinque received a Carnegie Medal from the foundation set up by the
business mogul and philanthropist.

“Someone nominated me and about six months later I was
given the award,” Pinque said. “It came with a reward
and scholarship assistance that I’m using now to help pay for
school.”

Pinque was two-and-a-half years old when he was adopted from his
native Haiti by single mother Audre Pinque. The family lived in
California, and then moved to Mexico for a time for her job as a
real estate agent.

The family then moved to Alabama partly because “my
brother and I were forgetting how to speak English,”
according to Pinque, who is a dual major in Spanish and
international relations.

Then tragedy struck, as Audre was killed in a car accident on
the night of his 13th birthday as the family headed out to
dinner to celebrate. Jonathan lived with his adoptive grandfather,
uncle and brother until heading off the Centre for school.

But during his sophomore year, Pinque’s grandfather passed
away. His uncle, Blair, is afflicted with autism and had lived with
his grandfather. With his younger brother away in the Air Force,
Jonathan moved his uncle from Alabama to Danville to live with
him.

“Coach Frye and the whole Centre family helped me get him
up here so I could continue with school and football,” Pinque
said. “He just needed to be near me where I could watch over
him and not back in Alabama by himself.”

During this time Pinque also became curious about seeing if he
could locate relatives in Haiti. He understood that the possibility
of locating maybe his mother or a brother was next to none, but
still he pursued it. Then, the earthquake struck Haiti.

“The earthquake has made it almost impossible,”
Pinque said. “I am still in contact with an organization that
is working on doing investigations and seeing if they can find
anybody that has my last name.”

Still with all the heartbreak in his young life, Pinque feels
fortunate.

“It’s never really been a hole,” Pinque said
of his missing family. “My adoptive mother was more than what
I could have ever asked for.

“Even in her absence, I’ve always been surrounded by
a great group of people, friends and family. I’ve essentially
taken them on as my own family. Really, it’s just
curiosity.”

And deeper still, he has compassion for birth mother that he
doesn’t remember.

“I want to let her know that her decision was not in
vain,” he said. “And that I understand and, basically,
just thank her. I could still be back in Haiti either not alive or
alive and suffering. I just have a really blessed situation right
now.”

What does the future hold for the senior who speaks two
languages fluently and studies three others?

Like any college senior, he would like to continue his football
career, if not in the professional ranks here in the states than in
Europe. But he also mentioned an opportunity to move to Spain for a
year and teach English or work for the foundation where he spent a
summer that connects cultures for the global good.

But at the moment, the most important thing is keeping the
Colonels in the hurt for the SCAC championship while finishing up
his degree.

Pinque has teamed with junior Monte Scotton to form the top
running back tandem in the SCAC. The pair has combined for 587
yards and 10 touchdowns in four games this season. Scotton emerged
last season when Pinque suffered through some injuries.

“I am going to be biased, but I think they are the best
two in the conference,” Frye said of the duo that also has 18
catches for 196 yards and a touchdown. “They are two
different styles of runner. Monte is a glider with good speed. They
are hard to defend. They play off each other well and respect each
other’s ability.”

The Centre program is still smarting somewhat from a loss to
Trinity a couple of years ago at the end of the season that cost
them the SCAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs. Last
season, the program suffered some tight losses and went a
disappointing 6-4.

In Birmingham-Southern, they face a team with lots of motivation
itself. After four years of provisional status and small
improvements each year, the Panthers a gunning for a trip to the
playoffs themselves behind the exploits of running back Shawn
Morris. Morris leads the SCAC with 729 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“I hope that our strength would be that we’ve played
for these things in the past,” Frye said. “We may have
come up short but I hoping that that experience alone will give us
a foundation to work from.

“The seniors kind of tasted what it could be like two
years ago. When you’re that close, it’s like anything,
there’s more passion in getting ready. They know it’s
their last hurrah.”

And it is Pinque who has seen the highs and lows and not just on
the field. One game will not make the Colonels season, just as one
event does not make a life. Maybe it’s best to just be
thankful for the opportunity.

“The key is to take it one game at a time,” Pinque
said. “I know it’s a clique you hear all the time.
There’s highs and lows, we’re not going to get over
adulated after one big win because we could get knocked off by
somebody else the next week.”

This Week’s Games

Centre (4-0, 1-0 SCAC) at No. 24 Birmingham-Southern
(5-0, 2-0 SCAC).The Panthers are ranked
in the Top 25 for the first time in program history, while the also
unbeaten Colonels have to be wondering where the love is after not
receiving a any votes in the D3football.com poll. The two teams
rank one-two in the SCAC in scoring and total offense. The key
could be Centre’s ability to stop the run, their offense is
very balanced averaging more than 180 yards on the ground and
through the air. BSC does most of its damage on the ground. The
last two meetings have been decided by a total of eight points and
Centre holds a 4-0 advantage in the series.The
winner probably sets itself up for a de facto SCAC title game with
Trinity later in the season.

Huntingdon (5-1) at Trinity (5-0, 3-0 SCAC).
This game is probably bigger for the Hawks than the Tigers.
Huntingdon, who won 56-30 last year, need this win over a regional
opponent to keep its Pool B playoff bid hopes alive. However, a win
here for Trinity would give them a little wiggle room for a
possible Pool C bid should they falter later in the season in the
SCAC. It should be a consummate matchup between an explosive Hawk
offense that averages 504 yards a game and a rigid Trinity defense
that allow less an 200 a game, keyed by the return of linebacker
Nick Darling.

DePauw (1-3) at Sewanee (2-4, 0-3). After
another tough conference loss last week at Trinity, Sewanee may
never have a better chance to beat a DePauw program that it has
only ever beaten once (1999). Sewanee will have to rev up its
option offense again after being held to under 200 yards rushing
for the second straight game. DePauw, hit hard
by graduation after consecutive playoff appearances, has struggled
to score points with just 14.2 points per game.

Rhodes (2-2, 0-1 SCAC) at Millsaps (3-3, 2-1).
Millsaps has won seven straight in this series, but the Lynx have
won back-to-back games this season after an embarrassing SCAC
opening loss to Trinity. The Majors put together their best
offensive output of the season in a win over Austin last week.
Running back topped the 100-yard mark for the second straight game
with 175 to earn SCAC player of the week honors. Brett Stoots leads
the SCAC in passing, with senior targets Buddy
Legens And Jack Lartigue, who have combined to catch 60 balls in
just four games.

Southern Oregon (3-3) at Mary Hardin-Baylor (5-0, 4-0
ASC). This could be a tough game for the Crusaders, who
are still searching for an identity on offense. Southern Oregon has
won 3 straight after a 0-3 start, beating a couple of ranked NAIA
teams in the process. The Cru fell to SOU on the road 40-28 back in
2008. Still it’s hard to imagine them dropping this one at
home.

McMurry (4-2, 3-1 ASC) at Texas Lutheran (4-1,
3-0). Coach Andy Padron has a great job
turning around a program that was 0-10 two years ago. Still for
anyone to take them seriously as a ASC title comtender, they need
to win this one. McMurry still has playoff hopes of its own.

Louisiana College (4-1, 2-1 ASC) at Howard Payne (1-5,
1-3 ASC). The Wildcats have Pool C aspirations but will
have to win out to be considered. The Jackets are trying to avoid
the ASC cellar.

Hardin-Simmons (3-3, 1-3 ASC) at Sul Ross State (1-4,
0-3 ASC). The Cowboys snapped a three-game losing streak
last week, while the Lobos are still searching for a conference
win.

Mississippi College (2-3, 1-2 ASC) at East Texas Baptist
(2-4, 1-3 ASC). The winner here could
turn their season around and finish strong. The Choctaws have lost
two in a row after tipping Hardin-Simmons, while you never know
which Tiger teams will show up.

Justin Goldberg is a newspaper copy editor and freelance writer in southwest Virginia. Originally from New York, he played Division III basketball in that colder region of the country, but moved to Virginia in 2008 to earn his M.F.A. in creative writing. He has written for multiple publications, including C-VILLE Weekly and The Roanoke Times. He is happy to join D3football.com for his first season as the Around the South columnist.2013 columnist: Andee Djuric2012 columnist: Kyle Robarts2008-11 columnist: Jason Bowen